Fun with Shakespeare

For my Shakespeare class at BYU I had to record a video of myself reciting one of my favorite sonnets by William Shakespeare. The form of the sonnet is typically named after him even though he was not the one to invent the form. It consists of fourteen lines in three quatrains (groups of four lines) and then a couplet. Shakespeare made this form of sonnet extremely popular.




I chose to recite his Sonnet 80. The text is as follows:

O! how I faint when I of you do write,
Knowing a better spirit doth use your name,
And in the praise thereof spends all his might,
To make me tongue-tied speaking of your fame.
But since your worth, wide as the ocean is,
The humble as the proudest sail doth bear,
My saucy bark, inferior far to his,
On your broad main doth wilfully appear.
Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat,
Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride;
Or, being wracked, I am a worthless boat,
He of tall building, and of goodly pride:
   Then if he thrive and I be cast away,
   The worst was this, my love was my decay.

This is the recording but I know it isn't all that exciting:

So if you're looking for something a little more hilarious, my husband made his own version while he was helping me out:

Let us know what you think of the videos!